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Sunday, September 19, 2010

Boy what a week.Art Opening was AWESOME! They made a video and you can see bubbles at the very beginning...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfUz01-kAlg..Sterling's hands at 2:07 and my daughter in the middle of the pic at 2:32. So proud to be a part of this!!!! So much lovely celebration of such a lovely city in such unlovely times....

THEN

Somebody very friendly on SBF sent some bubble work my way...and I found myself briefly a startled member of the jet set, flying out directly from the reception in that video to shoot a commercial in Malibu.I took enough concentrate (Thanks Bryce for telling me often enough that concentrates were the way to go that I finally listened...) in a dawn jug to make 8 gallons of juice. The concentrates are amazing and instant--I just mix my stuff up with a cup of warm water per cup of dawn and then bottle it. Two cups of this into a gallon of distilled water makes almost instant, excellent solution.I almost hate to say this, but I've completely backed off of the glycerin. I now have three ingredients plus water and I can't seem to improve it.I admit, the solution's super gooey...but that gooey self-healing saved my life in that shoot! It was TOTALLY pack-up-your-bubble-stuff-and-go-home weather--not worth a minute's time. I was stuck on the beach in high wind with money almost palpably pouring down the drain every second of this production they had going on...and I kept managing to launch these big floofy bubble-amoeba into the frame, and they would close...even though it took tremendous concentration. I suspect that (wonderful, friendly and ultra-professional) crew has no idea that it was only many, many hours of practice with the big poles that allowed them to get anything at all. They almost decided to have actors trained by bubblers to make the bubbles...that would have been disastrous in this weather!

TSA TOTALLY searched my bag in both directions, opened the J-Lube...but I had everything marked clearly and repeatedly, so all they really had to do was believe that I really do make giant bubbles...and things got through. The four foot duffle was not charged for oversize in either direction (United) though it came out the oversize baggage chute when I got home.

I felt a little funny having asserted that I would not do bubbles for pay and then taking this gig. But, really, I don't want to do parties--especially kids parties--for pay, because the unpredictability is to stressful and the I'm also very careful about doing-what-I-love for work. My brother's a professional musician and he has seen people's most beloved activity become drudgery once commodified. So...I fumbled around for a way to avoid the decision--looked up the client company's human rights record and they are pretty awesome on that score, actually. And I did the gig. And, I'd probably do it again. But bubbling for kids...as yet...I'll just do that for fun, when I feel like it. So, I changed the website to say that I don't do parties, but not that I don't perform for pay. Because that just became a lie. :) And I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity!

Watch for some new equipment designs coming soon...And that pro-shoot shoot made me realize that I REALLY want to make my next video! So, coming soon....!

I just dropped off the Bubble Project Loop DVD and player at the Mission Cultural Center! You should come see the show!http://www.missionculturalcenter.org/MCCLA_New/gallery.html#celebrate_sfThanks to Jeremiah for the great picture they used on the website!And thanks to Sterling for being so understanding when I called him with my best Barry-White-swallowing-gravel imitation and said I was too ill to do our long-awaited video shoot in Sutro Heights Park.Ack!I'm hoping for...mid-September to try again...?

The bubbles WILL descend from the Sutro Heights to the Ocean Beach. They will; I swear!

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What's this all about?!

When I was young, I wanted to make movies. In my 20s, I started making giant bubbles. In my 30's, I became an avid hiker. At 40, I became a dad and discovered I might have to somehow combine those first three into one project if I wanted to do ANY of them for awhile. So now I carry sloshing buckets and assorted video cameras to the tops of hills and see what happens. Here's how I explained it in the first blog...